6 points about Sully

So we finally finish our Clint Eastwood series with new release Sully. Sully is pretty much the story of the plane landing on the Hudson River and the aftermath of the event. Eastwood stayed in the director’s seat for Sully, while the brilliant Tom Hanks took the lead role in what is Hanks and Eastwood’s first collaboration together. This has been a very enjoyable series of movie for me to write 6 points about, and read on to find out whether or not we end on a high.

1. Tom Hanks was amazing

This is one that goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway. Tom Hanks is not only one of the best actors of his generation, but one of the best actors ever. He proved it in Sully and played to his characters emotions perfectly. Hanks let us see exactly what this character was going through with his great performance. Seeing how this heroic figure who guided the plane onto the Hudson dealt with the aftermath and people who claimed he endangered the people instead of saving them, wouldn’t have been done better than anybody other than Hanks. Whether or not he will get nominated is a different story but I do feel he gave a powerful enough performance to receive a nod.

2. Seeing how these events unfolded was very intriguing.

This was a very interesting story from start to finish. It was a hard story to get a whole movie out of but Eastwood made it work. We will discuss Eastwood later, but this, to the core is an extremely interesting story. Whether or not you enjoyed the movie, it’s hard not admit how, for lack of a better word, pretty cool this story is. People’s personalities were shown in the moments of crisis and it is very interesting seeing it all unfold on screen. The theme of high up executive’s vs everybody else is explored here and it was done in a refreshing way, which added to the overall impact of Sully. A great story that would work as a documentary, but just as good through the form of film.

3. The supporting cast was pretty solid.

Nothing to the level of Hanks, mind you, but still and all round good showing from everybody involved. Aaron Eckhart played the co-pilot for Hanks and was very good in his role. He offered a lighter alternative to Hanks’ character, which was refreshing. The whole board of executives played their snobby roles to perfection, without going over the top. This was a vital element in making the movie work and for it to not get unrealistic. This was a realistic movie at all times and Eastwood made sure that nobody went over-board with their performance. I don’t see anybody here getting a supporting nomination. Eckhart was good but I don’t see him beating some other stiff competition. But hey, who knows?

4. Eastwood’s directing was very good.

Sully is just a slight notch into this man’s prestigious career, yet still a good addition. He had a few bumps with movies before this one, but with this and American Sniper he seems to have gotten back on track. He seemed to know the story that he wanted to tell, and despite one negative that I will talk about in point 5, he put out a pretty good movie. He studied this source material well and seemed to juice out the interesting parts of it. He got some great performances out of the likes of Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart and made sure nobody went over the top in their performance. This movie had to be realistic and make the viewer feel like you are watching real events and not just a movie. I thought that he accomplished this for the most part. Not his best ever work but still up there.

5. There was some repetition with scenes in order to bulk the run-time.

As I stated above, this could have been a documentary feature, but it was made into a movie. Some scenes were re hashing themselves and we were being fed information that we already knew. Some of the flight sequences towards the end dragged on when we really didn’t need to see as much as they showed. This was to bulk out the run-time to guarantee the feature film status. Not a huge complaint but I felt as if we were seeing a lot of the same stuff. For example, the events in the cockpit during the crash are shown twice, and needlessly so. This was especially evident towards the end of the movie.

6. Overall, this is a solid addition to Eastwood’s filmography, with some great performances, but not as exhilarating as some previous attempts.

This is a hard movie to get right. Eastwood had to be careful with the subject matter, and try making a documentary style event, into a theatrical event. He did this quite well, despite my negative above. Tom Hanks was brilliant as ever, along with a sloid supporting role from Aaron Eckhart. Sully is an interesting tale told with some good screenplay and some good directing. The plane crash scene was entertaining (even if we did see it twice) and is an all-round solid movie. Like American Sniper, I knew very little about the subject matter going into the movie, but I think with this one, you need some kind of interest in the events. I am going to give Sully an 8/10.

So that brings our Clint Eastwood series to a close. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching some of the best work from a genius director. We didn’t write about every single movie he has directed, but maybe we will come back to these again.

Undecided about what our next series will be. Maybe Star Wars and the finish with Rogue One? Might be a struggle to get it finished by the time Rogue One comes out. We shall see.

Also apologies for the delay with this review. Internet is currently down as I write this, but hoping to get it back up as soon as possible so I can release this for you guys!!